Star Trek (TOS)

''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that follows the adventures of the starship and its crew. It later acquired the retronym of ''Star Trek: The Original Series'' (''TOS'') to distinguish the show within the media franchise that it began.

The show is set in the Milky Way galaxy, circa 2266–2269. The ship and crew are led by Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), First Officer and Science Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Chief Medical Officer Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley). Shatner's voice-over introduction during each episode's opening credits stated the starship's purpose:

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship ''Enterprise''. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Norway Productions and Desilu Productions produced the series from September 1966 to December 1967. Paramount Television produced the show from January 1968 to June 1969. ''Star Trek'' aired on NBC from September 8, 1966, to June 3, 1969. It was first broadcast on September 6, 1966, on Canada's CTV network. ''Star Trek''s Nielsen ratings while on NBC were low, and the network cancelled it after three seasons and 79 episodes. Several years later, the series became a hit in broadcast syndication, remaining so throughout the 1970s, achieving cult classic status and a developing influence on popular culture. ''Star Trek'' eventually spawned a media franchise consisting of 11 television series, 13 feature films, and numerous books, games, and toys, and is now widely considered one of the most popular and influential television series of all time.

Creation

On March 11, 1964, Gene Roddenberry, a long-time fan of science fiction, drafted a short treatment for a science-fiction television series that he called ''Star Trek''.Roddenberry, Gene (March 11, 1964)
''Star Trek'' Pitch
, first draft. Accessed at ''LeeThomson.myzen.co.uk''. This was to be set on board a large starship named ''S.S. Yorktown'' in the 23rd century bearing a crew dedicated to exploring the Milky Way galaxy.

Roddenberry noted a number of influences on his idea, some of which includes A. E. van Vogt's tales of the spaceship '' Space Beagle'', Eric Frank Russell's ''Marathon'' series of stories, and the film '' Forbidden Planet'' (1956). Some have also drawn parallels with the television series ''Rocky Jones, Space Ranger'' (1954), a space opera that included many of the elements integral to ''Star Trek''—the organization, crew relationships, missions, part of the bridge layout, and some technology. Roddenberry also drew heavily from C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels that depict a daring sea captain who exercises broad discretionary authority on distant sea missions of noble purpose. He often humorously referred to Captain Kirk as "Horatio Hornblower in Space".

Roddenberry had extensive experience in writing for series about the Old West that had been popular television fare in the 1950s and 1960s. Armed with this background, he characterized the new show in his first draft as "''Wagon Train'' to the stars". Like the familiar ''Wagon Train'', each episode was to be a self-contained adventure story, set within the structure of a continuing voyage through space. Most future television and movie realizations of the franchise adhered to the "Wagon Train" paradigm of the continuing journey, with the notable exceptions of the serialized ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', '' Star Trek: Discovery'', '' Star Trek: Picard'', and the third season of ''Star Trek: Enterprise''.

In Roddenberry's original concept, the protagonist was Captain Robert April of the starship S.S. ''Yorktown''. This character was developed into Captain Christopher Pike, first portrayed by Jeffrey Hunter. April is listed in the ''Star Trek Chronology'', ''The Star Trek Encyclopedia'', and at startrek.com as the ''Enterprise''s first commanding officer, preceding Captain Pike. The character's only television/movie appearance is in the '' Star Trek: The Animated Series'' episode "The Counter-Clock Incident".

Development

In April 1964, Roddenberry presented the ''Star Trek'' draft to Desilu Productions, a leading independent television production company. He met with Herbert F. Solow, Desilu's director of production. Solow saw promise in the idea and signed a three-year program-development contract with Roddenberry. Lucille Ball, head of Desilu, was not familiar with the nature of the project, but she was instrumental in getting the pilot produced.

The idea was extensively revised and fleshed out during this time—" The Cage" pilot filmed in late 1964 differs in many respects from the March 1964 treatment. Solow, for example, added the " stardate" concept.

Desilu Productions had a first-look deal with CBS. Oscar Katz, Desilu's Vice President of Production, went with Roddenberry to pitch the series to the network. They refused to purchase the show, as they already had a similar show in development, the 1965 Irwin Allen series ''Lost in Space''.

In May 1964, Solow, who had previously worked at NBC, met with Grant Tinker, then head of the network's West Coast programming department. Tinker commissioned the first pilot—which became "The Cage". NBC turned down the resulting pilot, stating that it was "too cerebral". However, the NBC executives were still impressed with the concept, and they understood that its perceived faults had been partly due to the script that they had selected themselves.

NBC made the unusual decision to pay for a second pilot, using the script called "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Only the character of Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, was retained from the first pilot, and only two cast members, Majel Barrett